


Whiplash

by nonky



Series: The Fine Line [3]
Category: Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Super Mysteries - Franklin W. Dixon & Carolyn Keene
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-15
Updated: 2016-10-15
Packaged: 2018-08-22 11:56:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8284955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonky/pseuds/nonky
Summary: Joe was right, just like he usually was when it came to women. Not that Nancy was just any woman, but she would be put off by his twitchy, nervous lack of conversation. Frank wasn't even sure he'd successfully formed a sentence in all the messages he'd left. It was obvious he should wait for a return call, even if it felt like his life depended on dialing Nancy until she answered.





	

Frank slept through his alarm. He jolted awake with a wordless protest. Nancy wasn't in the bed, and he had a moment of genuine panic. They weren't clear until they were on flights in the air, and there was a small possibility the people they were watching had found them. 

He sat up and clutched awkwardly at the bedding as he realized he was naked. His boxers made him feel clothed enough to circle the room quickly. The door was shut and locked. The windows were covered, and he wasn't sure what time it was. He had slept, but he didn't know how long. 

Nancy kept her room tidy, and her things were still there. He couldn't tell if clothing was missing. He looked for her phone and saw it propped on the nightstand. It was only after he had another clock he remembered his watch. 

"Shit," he muttered. 

It was just past 4 am, too early to be rested. His heart was less jolted when he noticed the bathroom door was closed. 

Frank walked over slowly, laying his palm on it. "Nancy?"

It opened, and she was standing in a robe with her hair wet. It should have made the last of the stupid panic stop. He was almost calm, except she held the door ajar instead of swinging it all the way. Her shoulders were tense. 

"Hi, are you okay?"

He didn't like that robe, covering her chin to toes and tied tightly. He'd been expecting to wake up holding her, bare and satisfied. Nancy quietly sneaking out of the bed to wash him off felt like a warning he should understand. 

He shook his head, hoping he wouldn't have to explain his overreaction. "I wasn't sure you heard the alarm in time. I didn't want you to miss your plane," he lied, shrugging. 

"I turned it off pretty quickly. You didn't have to get up this early. I know you did more stakeouts than Joe before I got here."

Frank hoped that didn't translate to him drooling on her in his sleep. "I'm fine," he said. "Hey, are you . . . I feel like I was kind of rough."

Nancy looked down. "I'm achy, but I took a bath. It would be nice to get a full night of sleep, but it can wait. I'm going to wait it out, sleep on the plane," she told him. "I need to dry my hair and I'll be out?"

"Okay."

Frank had his share of bad television dubbed from English, and the scant comforts of their budget rooms. He pulled on his jeans and shirt. Once he located his own phone, he noticed a recent text from his brother. Joe had found a warm place to land for the night and would be back in the morning. 

He admired Joe sometimes for that ease, but he would have found it empty. Joe found new friends everywhere, offers of an open couch and a return visit piling up as he traveled. Most of those offers weren't closed to Frank, but he had a reticence when meeting new people. He didn't open himself up to closeness right away, and he couldn't fake the lack of inhibition that made his brother so popular. 

Try as he might, he was worried Nancy wasn't happy they'd been together. Time lagged as he waited for her. He pulled the rest of his clothes on, too anxious to get back in bed and under the covers. 

She came back with the robe on and her face made up. Frank stood up suddenly and she froze, laughing with her hand to her throat. 

"You're making me nervous. It's only 4:30, right?"

"I didn't want to miss you this morning," he said. "I mean, I'll miss you, but at least I can say goodbye. Joe's out for the night. I can go with you to the airport, if you want."

"It's not necessary. We're both tired and you guys aren't even packed. I'm not going to make you go all that way and then do it again a few hours later," Nancy told him. She touched his chest, and his arms took it as an invitation to hold her. 

Her touch was graceful as it skimmed over his back, but then she pulled away with a smile he thought was pained. "I'm freezing. I'm just going to get dressed and finish packing. If I leave it too long I'll definitely forget something important."

He wanted to be the crazy brother for a moment. Joe would make her passport disappear just long enough she missed her flight. He'd take her on a whirlwind tour of the city and make her laugh. He'd steal a day and confess at the end of it, when she no longer cared because it had been wonderful. Frank knew how his brother operated with women, but he couldn't make that work for himself. Nancy mattered too much to screw up her plans. 

"I'm going to wash my face and try to wake up," he told her. "I'm not making any sense. I think the lack of sleep is finally catching up to me."

"You worked really hard on this case," Nancy said, reaching up to kiss him lightly. "I'm glad you're going home for a little while. Just think of all the home cooking that will be waiting for you."

"There might be a buffet table set up by the luggage carousel," Frank grumbled. "And knowing Joe, he'd actually fill a plate and start eating."

He ducked into the bathroom, feeling even more strange as the scent of her soap and shampoo made him a little hard. Frank covered his face and tried to summon the calm older brother mentality that got him through so many embarrassing social situations. 

He took his time washing up, oddly awed to be using the plain towels from Nancy's cheap hotel room. He noticed she had packed her stuff up and thoughtfully wiped over the counter before tossing her used laundry into the bathtub. He knew she would leave an envelope with a nice tip for housekeeping, and pull her bedding across the mattress to make the room less untidy for the maid. 

She was a good, nice person, and she liked him. He wasn't sure why he was so nervous. He didn't want to leave things with her on a bad note until they managed a place to meet up again. 

He looked into the mirror and took a deep breath, checking to make sure he didn't look as jittery as he felt. When he opened the bathroom door, he heard the television running. Nancy didn't speak Russian, but she had found the news channel and was waiting for a weather report. The big icons of weather were universal. 

Her jeans and t-shirt were comfortable, and she had a pair of sneakers lined up neatly at the foot of the tidied bed. Her suitcase was packed and by the door. Her purse sat on the nightstand. 

"Hi," he said quietly.

"Hey. Don't mind the tv, I just wanted to check the weather. It's still cold, but nothing falling. Flights should be going out normally."

She sank down on the bed, one leg folded under the other. He sat next to her and they tilted together as Frank put an arm around her. 

"I need to ask you something," she sighed. "But I'll understand if you can't say yes."

He was in a very accommodating mood. He would find her a pony and a banana split inside twenty minutes, even if it cost his last dime. Frank cuddled her nearer and rubbed his face along her hair. 

"I'd do anything for you even before last night," he told her. "Just ask."

"I know Joe is your brother and he's not stupid. He might know, or guess. I don't expect you to never tell him. Can you maybe wait a few days before you do? I'm feeling a little - I'm not sure I can take any teasing right now and I want it to be a private thing."

"I understand." He was feeling immensely protective as well, as if the night needed to be shrouded in secrecy and sealed behind top secret documents until they celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. "If he asks, I won't lie about it. I really don't know if he's noticed anything different this past week. I won't bring it up until we both have a little time to keep it to ourselves."

It was like the jolt of an accident, without the bad. The unexpected was too much to process, and though they were both okay, Frank wanted to think about it a lot. He needed to work out his feelings and he knew Nancy likely wanted the same. They weren't impulsive people, or something more than kissing would have happened years ago. 

"Thank you," she whispered. "I don't want to ever cause trouble between you guys. It's great you're so close. I just - Oh, I really don't want to get on that plane, but it feels important I don't drop everything else after one night. I wouldn't have gone without waking you, though."

He cupped her hand and waited for her to link their fingers. "I wouldn't ask you to drop everything. We'll find time to go on a vacation. We'll lie on a beach and figure out how we're going to see each other more regularly."

She was hoarse when she replied. "I know."

It occurred to him she was also feeling off-balance and vulnerable. She might even be wondering if he meant it about seeing her without a case. Frank sat up and waited for her to look up at him, meeting his eyes. 

"Hey? You know this is way more than just one night," he told her. "I'm not going to give it a label or anything yet, but it means a lot to me. You mean a lot to me."

She nodded, flushing slightly. "I'm okay, I promise. I know you're not like that. It would be easier to go if I felt like we had a day together. I'm trying not to regret taking this next case, and that's not fair to anybody. They need my help. The timing just stings."

Frank couldn't argue any of that. It sucked they couldn't have a full night, lazing in bed and getting used to feeling bare skin and rumpled hair. He wanted lots of idle moments to be in awe of Nancy's beauty and her quick, compassionate mind. He wanted to work on cases with her, too, and combine their abilities to see how in sync they could really be when they put it to a test. 

"You have a while before you have to go," he said quietly. "Do you want to grab breakfast?"

"I can't eat. Hold me for a while," she said sadly. "Maybe there will be fog and my flight will get canceled."

They sat against the headboard, staring at the television, but it showed nice weather and news reports with nothing in particular to prevent airports running smoothly. The hotel phone rang to tell her the shuttle was leaving in ten minutes, and Nancy finished getting dressed. 

"I'll walk you to the lobby," He said, wanting another few minutes. 

"I think that might be harder. I'll be off and on planes for twenty hours or so," Nancy told him. "Call me anytime after that."

He should protest she needed to sleep, and reset to Oregon time. Frank buried one hand in her hair and the other between her arm and her side. "If I don't get you, call me back. I don't care when it is. Don't even worry about time zones."

They left her hotel room and he stood in the hallway, tracing her with his eyes as she walked away with determined steps. 

 

Frank went to his own room, packed without paying too much attention to whose clothing ended up in which suitcase, and took a shower. He was nearly finished, lingering over the aching spots on his back where a fingernail must have scraped him, when he noticed a tiny smear of blood on his belly. He rubbed at it, puzzled. It didn't hurt, and there was no mark on his skin.

It was Nancy's. He washed it away hurriedly, and rushed to get out. He was too late to call her. He had been sulking for too long, wasting time before he realized he should have asked more about how she was. And now he'd have to wait a day. 

His memories were a sultry, pleasant blur, full of very nice moans and her hands pulling him nearer. But he also remembered the laboured pauses when she couldn't catch her breath, and the times she'd seemed hurt. This morning she was across the world. She'd been talking about wanting to stay with him, but also about needing some quiet. 

He looked up her flights, trying to work out when her layovers would fall. It would be simple enough to ask again if she was physically okay. That was just a normal, decent thing to do, now that he knew there might be something to worry about. It would have been fine if she'd answered and brushed off his concern with an embarrassed denial. It would have been okay to hear she was a little worse for wear but not really hurt. 

Except she didn't answer any of his calls, and then it was time for him to hurry Joe to the airport to catch their own flight. 

 

His promise not to say anything lasted ten minutes into the flight, the second his brother pulled out headphones and seemed inclined to settle in for a long nap. Frank couldn't stand the unaccustomed silence when all he wanted was for Joe to notice his distraction and pry as he normally would.

"Nancy and I got together last night," he blurted. "It was kind of planned but I feel like I rushed it and hurt her. I think, I'm pretty sure it was her second time with anybody. The first time - I didn't ask her - I think it was with Ned and they were together for so long. She was a little quiet in the morning."

Joe blinked, unexpectedly silent for longer than Frank liked. He swallowed his drink - a can of cola smuggled on up his sleeve because his hangover wouldn't wait for the flight attendants to serve refreshments - and shifted to look at his brother. 

"Okay, I didn't know that was going on. She's single?"

Thinking of her as single wasn't a great notion, but it was the truth. He hadn't asked for any promises. "She and Ned broke up, but it was a while ago. It wasn't cheating or anything."

"Good. I didn't really see that for you guys," Joe confirmed. "So it wasn't good?"

The more he tried to fix on a specific, clear memory that said she'd felt good, the more Frank started to replay tiny hesitations and moments Nancy had let him see her discomfort.

"It was amazing for me. It was too good, and I lost track a little, pushed," Frank told him. "I mean, I got overwhelmed and I definitely hurt her for a while. I was caught up in it and my brain just overheated. Next thing I was . . . there and she was crying. I didn't even have any protection to use, but she said she was covered. I'm kind of worried about how she's feeling now. I didn't see it right away, but there was some - bleeding I guess."

Joe's shoulders were high and tight, and Frank thought back over his words with a grimace. He'd been trying to speak vaguely and quietly, regretting his timing when there was no real privacy to talk. 

"She said yes, and wanted to continue. By the end, she felt better - I'm just feeling shitty I couldn't protect her myself. I feel like she's going to spend the next while wondering if her pills are enough. Or if she'll tell me when I'm doing something that doesn't work for her. We were both really excited about it, and now I'm having trouble putting it somewhere in my head. We needed more time to be clear what we're starting." 

Joe put a hand up and wound a fist into his brother's shirt, using the hold to knock Frank back into the seat. It was the best he could do for knocking some sense without getting the plane grounded. 

"Jeez, Frank, you have to watch how you talk about yourself. You were making it sound like you forced her," Joe whispered harshly. "You're freaking out. And you were dumb enough not to use a condom, which is something I can't support. You're going to wonder if you got her pregnant until you see her again and she's not. Hell, if she decides she doesn't want to talk to you ever again, you'll be heartbroken and you'll always wonder." 

He was going to throw up. Frank reached for the buckle of the seatbelt, and opened it with effort. He'd ruined it, and on a level he'd known it was too fast. But she had been smiling and wanting him, too. He wasn't imagining that. 

"She had three connecting flights," he said. "By the time we were boarding, she was on the last one. I tried to call her in between. I left messages."

"You know how long it is flying that much in a day. She might not have been able to answer. How many messages did you leave her," Joe asked. 

Too many. Obsessive crazy person too many, now that he was counting. There were a few nonchalant attempts, and by the last one he was pretty sure he'd sounded desperate. 

"Too many to just be checking in. It's going to scare her. I screwed this up. You have to tell me how to fix it."

"No more calls and stop panicking. Nancy is a reasonable person. She likes you. Bad experiences happen all the time in dating, and you have to relax. If you're like this when she calls you back, she's going to think you hated it and never want to hear from her again."

Joe was right, just like he usually was when it came to women. Not that Nancy was just any woman, but she would be put off by his twitchy, nervous lack of conversation. Frank wasn't even sure he'd successfully formed a sentence in all the messages he'd left. It was obvious he should wait for a return call, even if it felt like his life depended on dialing Nancy until she answered. 

His panic must have been obvious, because Joe dug into his sleeve and hauled out a second, unopened can of cola. "Here, I'll tell you about my night. You can break the ice gossiping about my hijinks," he offered. 

Frank took the drink and tried to unknot his shoulders. He tilted his head back and listened as his brother smiled fondly at his own adventures.

"I was dancing with these girls - like six or seven girls. They had guys with them, but these guys wouldn't dance at all, so I was in the middle of the group, switching things up. The guys got worked up about something I did. I was just playing, throwing winks and looks."

It was absolutely within Joe's skill set to flirt with half a dozen girls at the time time, all the while unable to speak more than a few travel guide phrases. They were exactly opposite in the way they showed their interest in women, and Frank could only shake his head.

"Then I'm in the middle of hot girls on one side and an angry bunch of Russian dudes on the other. The dudes are growling stuff and the girls are talking back. Bouncers are coming over, and I'm trying to work my way to the side to leave - and the tiniest girl throws this punch that levels a guy. I took off one way, bouncers jumped in, and that was when I met these other guys live tweeting the whole thing . . . "

It could have been a tall tale, and Frank didn't care. He absorbed the details of the story, trying to recall the funny bits so he could tell it to Nancy and make her laugh.

 

His phone rang just past 11 P.M. Frank and Joe had arrived home to a welcome their mother and aunt had planned like a state dinner. They ate too much, were clucked over, and two suitcases full of laundry were stuffed into the overworked washer. 

Frank ran a charger to his bedside and set his phone carefully. He made sure the volume was up and he sat up to wait. He grabbed the phone on the second ring, coming out of a doze. 

"Hello?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, it's - I knew it was too late to call," Nancy said. "I can call back tomorrow."

He made himself stop and think, in case his mangled thoughts came out in alarming fragments. 

"No, don't be. I was waiting to hear from you," he said, with too much urgency. "I mean, I don't mind losing sleep to talk to you."

Nancy made a soft, happy hum. "Me, too. You were trying to call me?"

It was really nice of her to pretend she hadn't heard his desperate messages. He would have loved to join her in pretending it was another friendly phone call.

"I wanted to ask if you were okay," he said. "I know you'll say you are, but I think both of us are used to being polite and brave."

She paused. "You want me to be rude and cowardly? I'm - it was pretty uncomfortable sitting all day on different airplanes. I'm tired and I would have liked to spend more time with you. I'm also weirdly relieved to have a new case. It's the kind of mystery I'm good at solving," she said shyly. 

"I'm a mystery?" It was nearly flattering. Frank felt transparent with her, and he trusted her but wanted the option of private thoughts. 

"You're kind. It makes it hard to tell what's genuine interest," Nancy told him. 

"I'm not that kind," he disagreed. "I've been thinking about last night. I'm not proud of myself for being too impatient to wait until we were more prepared. I owed you more time and caution."

Her sigh was gentle. "I'm never complaining about last night, and you can't trick me into it. I'm still holding back this weird high I get thinking about it."

The thrill of having real intimacy instead of his imagination made Frank's stomach leap. He relaxed into his pillows and smiled. "So you're really good?"

"I'm incredible."

He'd never thought about how distinct real happiness was, but Nancy's warmed all the anxiety into bliss. He closed his eyes and pictured her, taking his first deep breath all day. 

"So am I. Tell me about your case," he said. 

"It's two and a half years of family squabbles over an inheritance, and a lost daughter who didn't even know she was adopted. My head is spinning with all the crazy details that came up," Nancy said. "It's kind of tacky but I'm enjoying all the different stories I have to unravel. The will is before a judge in a few weeks, but it might take all that time to figure it out. Sorry."

"It's okay." Time suddenly felt like nothing to worry about, along with distance. "I'm glad you're having fun."


End file.
